Thats a good point, i've been rendering in 640/480 lol. i have tried the model with a default sun and sky, it looks ok but to be honest the one i posted on here looks much better.

thanks for that tutorial link by the way. iam reading it as i type

This was a tutorial from digital tutors, its great for beginners to learn modelling techniques and texture techniques, the downfall is it dosent hit on lighting and render techniques, but i would recommend this to anyone.